Streaming Viewers Are Willing to Accept Ads, But Not If They're Paying for it, Tubi Finds
As more and more streamers pile into advertising-led subscription services there are signs of a potential backlash among consumers with nearly 80% agreeing that if they’re paying for a streaming service, they expect no ads at all.
That’s according to a new survey by Tubi, which also found that nearly half of Gen Z viewers found ads that seem misaligned with their own preferences to “significantly disrupt” their enjoyment of the streaming experience.
Worth noting upfront that Tubi’s research, conducted as it is with The Harris Poll, is self-serving. The Fox-owned streamer, which claims more than 97 million monthly active users mostly in the U.S, is a largely free ad supported service.
Nonetheless, the warning is there for streamers like Netflix or Amazon Prime as they ramp up ads and charge $6.99 and $8.99 a month for the basic with-ads service respectively.
For instance, 81% of consumers told Tubi that watching ads is a fair trade-off for access to free streaming content and encouragingly for ad buyers 59% of viewers say they'd consider taking action after seeing interesting ads while streaming. This figure leaps up to 81% among Gen Z but there’s a catch: most ads miss the mark. 73% of Gen Z viewers though the ads they see when streaming “seem misaligned with my personal preferences.?
This highlights a major missed opportunity for brands to create more relevant, impactful advertising. “Overwhelmingly, consumers see paid platforms with ads as a bad deal,” the report states. “Let’s face it, ads can feel disruptive, but they’ll be a more welcome interruption if they are relevant to the viewer and serve as a fair trade-off for free content.”
The survey also reinforced the budget concerns of a subscription saturated target audience. Streaming is a sizable chunk of consumers' monthly entertainment budget – On average, consumers are spending $129 per month on streaming + cable which is $20 more than they spend on clothes each month $109. 56% of consumers say they monitor streaming services carefully, so as to not overspend, and Gen Z viewers are particularly cost-sensitive: 76% say they have or would end their streaming subscription over increased price.
On average, viewers are juggling nearly 7 streaming services, with a mix of paid streaming services (3.9 on average) and free services (2.6 on average).
Other frustrations that cause subscription switch-offs: removal of content (66% agree), irrelevant content (63% agree), tiered memberships (63% agree) and password crackdowns (45%, up 5% YoY).
Two-thirds (67%) of Gen Z watchers have ended a streaming subscription because they finished watching the show or movie they were interested in – and there was no other relevant programming on the platform for them. A significant portion of Gen Z are looking to downsize their streaming use: 29% say they use more services now than they plan to in the future.
It also found that password sharing is becoming a tricky social dilemma. Seven in 10 viewers told the survey that they wouldn't share their streaming login with a romantic partner unless they were seriously dating. “Why? Because like a toothbrush, once it's shared, there's no going back,” the report states.
44% of Gen Z admit that they've continued using an ex's streaming platform login even after they broke up. The unspoken rules of password sharing haven't got easier. More than half (53%) of Gen Z viewers think that password sharing has made relationships with family & friends more complicated, and 38% confess that they've stopped dating someone because their taste in TV / movies was so different.
Tubi's conclusion: “Perhaps the era of the password pass around is over with viewers opting to keep their streaming relationships strictly professional.”
In terms of content, Tubi found viewers favoring indies over remakes. 70% of US streamers want to see more TV shows & movies on platforms that are independent or from smaller creators (a 4% increase YoY). 73% of Gen Z says they prefer to watch original content over franchises/remakes; and 72% of Gen Z streamers wish they had more of a say in the type of content that gets made for streaming services.
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